I recently read an article titled “The Teaching of the Catholic Church on Home Schooling – Parents for Eternal Life” by Jesuit priest Fr. John Hardon, and the following paragraph really struck me:
“...what they (children) mainly need is to know why God made them; why they are on earth at all; why they are in this world; that they are here in this life in order to prepare and train themselves for the world to come. In a word, children are to be taught that their short stay here in time is only a preparation for the world that will never end. They are to be trained for heaven.”
Our kids need to be “trained for heaven”?! What a big responsibility we parents have then! In fact, Fr. Hardon goes on to say:
“The Church teaches that, ‘Under God, parents are the first in time, first in authority, first in responsibility, first in supernatural ability, and first in dignity to educate their children for eternal life.’”
“...believing Catholic parents...must be convinced that their primary responsibility as parents is to prepare the children that God gave them - for eternal life.”
“We are told the one reason; I should say the main reason, why Catholic parents are the primary teachers of their children is because they have the supernatural grace to do so. In the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: ‘Through the grace of the sacrament of marriage, parents receive the responsibility and privilege of evangelizing their children’ (2225).”
“Parents must always keep this vision clearly in their minds: we are fathers and mothers of children for heaven. Our one hope is to be reunited in heaven with our families, and children and grandchildren and great, great grandchildren, in the everlasting City of Jerusalem which is our heavenly home.”
The statement above was brought even closer to home just recently, when our almost-five year old son Tim told me:
“Mama, when you’ve died na and gone to heaven, can I go with you too? I want to be in heaven with you and Papa.”
Hearing her Kuya say this, 2-year old Rysse says: “Baba heaven also!” (Baba is her nickname – it means “baby” in Afrikaans).
Tim and Rysse – 'Jesus, we trust in You!'
As a parent, I try to shield my children from the harsh realities of life. However, when it comes to death, their father and I try to be as open to them as we can, and try to explain things in terms they can easily understand. We recently brought them with us to the wake of a prematurely-born baby (which prompted me to write my last blog entry here), and at first I thought that they would be scared or maybe even a bit traumatized to see the tiny little baby’s body in the casket.
I was wrong in my assumptions though. They seemed to understand my explanation that even if they could see the baby’s body, little Simon* had already gone to heaven with Jesus. Up to now, Tim still remembers to include him in our daily prayers – “we pray for baby Simon, who is already in heaven, and all the other babies who got killed in their mommies’ tummies.”
Photo: Kids’ prayer time
Tim used the term “got killed” but meant those who had died in their mothers’ wombs through natural causes. I am not going to explain to him yet that there are actually babies who do “get killed” in their mommies’ tummies through the grave, twisted sin of abortion and abortifacient contraceptives. For now, I will leave his concept of death and being reunited with God in heaven at that.
Reading the “Parents for Eternal Life” article, and the paragraph below, taken from the introductory page of our homeschool Kindergarten curriculum, I was reminded once again that despite being an impossibly imperfect parent to my kids, God has a plan and a purpose for me:
"Of course, our most important goal is to educate our children for eternity. How? By living and being what we want our children to be. We must be truthful, brave, forgiving, thoughtful, faithful, virtuous, self-disciplined, kind and cheerful if we want our children to be! Our Faith is caught, not taught... we can't give what we don't have. Overwhelming? Not when we remember that a baby learns to walk by falling! God measures our effort and appreciates every little thing we do for love of Him. He invites us to keep "walking" and grow more in love with Him each day."
You know what, He has a purpose for you too, dear reader! Even if you’re not a parent, the last two sentences in the paragraph above apply to you. Just keep “walking” in God’s ways, and strive to grow in love with Him every day. Perhaps this beautiful song, inspired by today’s Psalm, will move you to do so:
“Even though You know, You will always love me.” What a beautiful assurance! It serves as a great reminder as well: we are not meant for this world. There is more to this life, and parents especially should remember to teach their kids that. Our final destination: HEAVEN.
We are meant for Heaven.
P.S. If you want to support a family whose baby has also gone home to Heaven, please join the “Run for Sofia Ysabel” this Saturday August 27, 2011 at the Piazza at Venice, McKinley Hill, Taguig City. Registration for the 3k and 5k fun run is at P500 each and part of the proceeds will go to a chosen charity benefiting patients with congenital heart disease.
To know more, please go to the website http://runforsofiaysabel.wordpress.com/ or Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/runforsofiaysabel. To know more about Sofia Ysabel, please visit http://sofiaysabel.wordpress.com/.
*Baby Simon’s name has been changed to protect the baby’s family’s privacy